White Cardboard With My Name and Crime Written On It!
I thought the following article was interesting. 17 villagers who were obstructing a goverment construction site were arrested and forced to wear white cardboard hanging from their necks, with their name and crime written on it in front of a crowd of people. Could you image being in that situation? Many look at this and just see the surface level that this kind of punishment is “last century.” As humiliating as it would be, to me it is also convicting, because if I had to wear a sign that stated my name and crime or sin, in front of a crowd of people…how ashamed I would be. I am thankful that Jesus hung on the cross in my place for my sin even though I deserved the punishment for my sin. I pray that the Chinese people would find that same kind of forgiveness only found in Jesus Christ and no longer have to wear a sign stating who they are and what they did, but could wear a sign stating Whose they are and what He did!
You can read part of the article and see a picture below:
Villagers publicly humiliated in general assembly for obstructing government construction
“Recently Hanbin District local government in Shaanxi Province held the public general assembly to demonstrate the criminal acts of 17 villagers for obstructing the government constructions. Each criminal had a white cardboard hanging from their necks, with his/her name and crime written on it…”
Passenger Plane Crashes in NE China, at least 43 Dead
Passenger Plane Crashes in NE China, at least 43 Dead
HARBIN, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) — A passenger plane with 96 people on board crashed during landing at a forests-surrounded airport in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province amid thick fog late Tuesday.
By 3 a.m. Wednesday, at least 43 people were confirmed dead while the remaining 53 have been rescued and sent to hospitals, said Hua Jingwei, a top publicity official in Yichun City where the plane crashed.
Wang Xuemei, the city’s vice mayor overseeing the rescue efforts, said most of the hospitalized suffered broken bones.
But it is not immediately known how many are in critical conditions.
The ERJ-190 jet, manufactured by the Brazilian aerospace conglomerate Embraer with maximum passenger capacity of 108, crashed near the runaway of Lindu airport of Yichun at 9:36 p.m. Tuesday, some 40 minutes after it took off from the provincial capital Harbin.
Ninety-one passengers, including five children, and five crew members boarded the plane, sources with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said.
There is no official account of what happened during the landing and the investigation into the cause of the crash has not yet concluded.
Work crews are continuing to search the black box in the wreckage.
Hua, head of the publicity department of the Yichun city committee of the Communist Party of China, said the jet broke into two pieces approaching the runway. Some passengers were thrown out of the cabin before the broken jet crashed to the ground and engulfed in blaze.
Witnesses said a huge blaze enveloped the wreckage and the flames reddened the surrounding forests. The blaze had been put out before dawn Wednesday.
Some said the airport, nestled in a thickly-forested valley, is not able to accommodate landing flights during the night.
Local aviation officials declined to be interviewed while a team of CAAC officials and technicians left Beijing for Yichun to participate in the rescue and investigation.
The tragedy also prompted Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang to lead a team of transportation, health, work safety, and security officials to Yichun overnight.
Lindu Airport is located in a forest some 9 kilometers away from downtown Yichun, a city with about 1 million population.
Henan Airlines launched the Yichun-Harbin service one year ago and operated flights by ERJ-190 jets three times a week.
The carrier, based a central China province with the same name, was previously known as Kunpeng Airlines and was only renamed Henan Airliens last year. It is run by the Shenzhen-based Shenzhen Airlines.
Official Survey Reports 23 Million Christians in China
HONG KONG – Christians in China now number just over 23 million, according to the results of the Communist country’s first official faith survey.
Although that figure amounts to only 1.8 percent of the total population, it represents 73 percent of China’s religious population.
The figures were contained in the newly published Blue Book on China Religions, compiled by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an academic unit under the control of the Chinese government, according to China Daily.
The academy looked at the responses of over 60,000 questionnaires carried out in more than 300 counties across China.
Among the Christians interviewed, 69 percent of them said that they had converted to Christianity because they or their family members had fallen ill. A staggering 70 percent of those describing themselves as Christian were female and 67 percent of all Christians surveyed said they had been baptized.
The academy attributed the growth to societal reform over the last three decades, with 73 percent of Chinese Christians having joined the church after 1993, and only 18 percent having joined the church between 1982 and 1992.
“These statistics clearly indicate that the 30-year period of reform and opening up has been a period of rapid development for both Chinese society and the Chinese church,” Fu Xianwei, who heads the body that ensures churches follow state interests, was quoted as saying by China Daily.
Researchers noted a change in church demographics, with more young people, intellectuals and professionals joining the church in recent years.
To cope with the increase in number, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of churches in China, which now number more than 55,000.
Researchers noted that although the church had grown, Christian communities are still marginalized in society.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said on its website that Christianity mainly attracts people with low social status, including the poor, the women and older people.
It said that while half of Christians had completed their primary education, only 2.6 percent of them attained a college degree or higher.
There are different estimates on the total number of Christians in China when attendance at unregistered churches is taken into account, with figures ranging from 40 million to 130 million.
The Blue Book also touched on figures for Catholicism, Buddhism, Islam and Taoism. The number of Catholics in China, according to the book, is 5.7 million.
04.21.10
A Beijing Christian shares his story of conversion
A Beijing Christian shares his story of conversion
By Wu Yiyao (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-17 07:54Simon Zhang, a 22-year-old student in Haidian district, Beijing, says he was converted to Christianity two years ago when trying to figure out the meaning of life.
Zhang spoke on condition of only being identified by his surname and English first name instead of his full Chinese name.
“People wondered why I would challenge myself with such a question,” said Zhang. “Other people my age were preoccupied with more pragmatic things, such as school, job hunting and romantic relationships.”
But he was already on top of his studies, winning scholarships every term, and had a growing relationship with a girl. He had interned at a Fortune 500 company, and still felt like he was looking for something.
“Good academic scores, a girlfriend and bright career prospects may really have been something for my peers, but I found having it all pointless and insignificant,” Zhang said. “I was just bored of everything.”
When he started reading a Bible a colleague gave him, his perspective on life changed.
“I didn’t hesitate much when I started to believe in Jesus, despite my usual skepticism,” he said.
“All of a sudden all my questions about life were answered and what could be as amazing as that?”
Zhang’s conversion was seamless, but he had trouble choosing a church.
“Some churches asked congregation members to donate at every meeting and the priest would say those who did not donate were spiritually challenged,” he said. “I disliked the feeling of being judged by the amount or the frequency of donation.”
He then read about criminal groups disguised as Christian house churches holding secret meetings and committing rape, murder and fraud in his hometown in Jiangxi province.
“Since then I have avoided secret meetings of any kind,” he said. “Secret meetings can easily go too far.”
Another church he tried frequently distributed publications about non-spiritual issues, prompting him to quit.
But he says he is now happy with a 700-member house church in Haidian district, which meets openly almost all the time. He said he has gained a new appreciation for his studies and girlfriend.
Related readings: House churches thrive in Beijing
Everything You Hear Is True!
Someone once told me that everything you hear about China is probably true.
Because it is so large, one thing could be true in one area and not be true in another. So what do you believe? Who knows!
Everyone interprets data through their own filters as well. (For example, when the church leaders in china who had 50,000 on their membership role got sentenced to prison, many were fearful because of the persecution. I was encourage that a church could get to 50,000 on roll before getting sentenced to prison.)
Anyways, here are two seemingly conflicting stories about China I found interesting;
Expanding Openness to Christian Faith:
“As many of you have seen in the news and on our blog, amazing changes have been occurring in mainland China over the past couple of decades. Very recent signals continue to point to an expanding openness to Christian faith and practice on the part of governing authorities. While sporadic persecution does still occur throughout the country, there are also massive shifts underway and increasing freedom of worship. We rejoice in these opportunities for the spread of the gospel.”
China’s Christians, endure unimaginable persecution:
“More Christians are in prison or under detention in China than in any other country. House churches (unregistered churches), which make up approximately 90 percent of China’s Christians, endure unimaginable persecution.”
Well, it’s probably all true.
How Many Christians are there in China?
Everyone wants to know how many Christians are in China. Well Paul Hattaway from Asia Harvest has published the following research on “How Many Christians are there in China?” Click Here to read the entire article.
Here is a summary of the findings for 2010:
Population: 1,355,837,457
Protestants: 82,427,957
Percentage: 6%
A report like this is encouraging and challenging. It is encouraging because it shows that God is doing a work in China, even if just half of the numbers were true. God is working in the largest Nation on earth! It is challenging because their is so much work to be done! There are still so many that have never heard a clear presentation of the gospel!
Also, don’t let a report like this fool you. This report included 21,103,139 catholics, which I didn’t included in the numbers above. The other number is protestant, which basically means anyone who claims to be Christian and is not catholic. Even in America we have thousands of churches who claim to be “Christian” and know nothing of being truly born again.
I was in a three-self church in China and when I asked one of the workers how they knew they were going to heaven, her response was that she was a good person and goes to church every week. She knew nothing of the Gospel!
I think He puts it into a correct perspective when he states the following:
“It is generally agreed that there were 750,000 Protestant believers in the country in 1949, and so even if there are just 30 million now it would represent a 40-fold increase in the nearly six decades of Communist rule. This is extraordinary and should be the cause of much rejoicing and thanks to God. There are very few countries on earth that could claim a similar explosion of faith over a similar length of time.
All discussion of how many Christians there are in China should be tempered by the realization that more than 90 percent of its present population face a Christless eternity. Hundreds of millions of individuals have yet to hear the gospel.”
Demand for Bible Outstripping Supply in China
Demand for Bible outstripping supply in China
by Charlie Boyd Posted: Friday, February 19, 2010, 13:55 (GMT)
The Bible Society has reported a growing demand for copies of the Bible in China where an estimated 500,000 people converted to Christianity in 2009 alone.
Although some four million Bibles were printed and distributed across China last year, the rapid growth of the church year on year means that demand for Bibles is now outstripping supply, according to the Bible Society.
The official number of Christians in China stands at 28.6 million, but it is believed the true figure could be as high as 90 million if the estimated number of worshippers at unofficial house churches is included.
The UK-based Bible Society subsidises the cost of printing Bibles to keep the cost below £2 a copy, vital for Christians living in China’s rural heartland, where 70 per cent of churchgoers are found and half the population live on less than $2 a day.
The Bibles are printed at the state-owned Amity Printing Company, which has printed around 70 million Bibles since it was established in 1987. Around 50 million of them have gone to Chinese believers.
“As more and more people are joining the Church they are asking for a Bible,” says Bible Society’s China Partnership Co-ordinator Kua Wee Seng.
“Every year we have to raise funds for Bible subsidy. The reason is that in the rural areas where most Christians are found, they are living in relatively poor conditions. In order for them to have a copy of the Bible we have to provide paper so that a Bible is affordable for most of the Christians in China.
“This is a time of opportunity in China. Many of us feel that we mustn’t miss this opportunity or people will turn to something else, other than Christianity.”
03.4.10
Abortion in China
A friend in China posted the following on facebook.
This is what that add says in English…
“Students are our future, but when something happens to them, who will help and protect them? Chongqing Huaxi Women’s Hospital has started Students Care Month, where those students who come to get an abortion can get 50% off if they show their student ids. Abortion surgeries are the most advanced in the world, won’t stretch (your womb), won’t hurt, it’s quick, and you can do what you want afterwards, it won’t affect your studies or your work.”
Happy Chinese New Year 2010
Sunday is Chinese New Year. 2010 is the year of the Tiger, also known as Geng Yin. Here is some information about Chinese New Year:
Chinese New Year or Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is sometimes called the “Lunar New Year” by English speakers. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month (Chinese: 正月; pinyin: zhēng yuè) in the Chinese calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. Chinese New Year’s Eve is known as chú xī. It literally means “Year-pass Eve”.
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.
Interesting Article About China
Evangelical Leader Explains Why China Visit, Report Excluded House Churches
By Michelle A. Vu | Christian Post Reporter | Wed, Feb. 03 2010 05:42 PM EDT
The article is worth the read if you are interested in China, click the link above to read the whole article.
Here are some observations I made:
Many Christian groups get off target and start focusing on political problems.
“We believe that religious freedom and human rights are tied together and we are not going to step away from that kind of commitment,” Tunnicliffe stated. “In fact, we believe we will continue to be strong advocates for that.”
Yes, they print Bibles in China!
“The Amity Press is the only government-approved Bible printing press in China.”
Don’t believe all the reports you hear about China.
“WEA’s issued statement on this visit to China would lead the international community to believe that the Christian church is alive and well – free to worship under the atheist communist system,” the Texas-based organization added, while acknowledging that there are true Christian believers who attend TSPM/CCC-approved churches.
“This over-simplifies a far more complicated situation for Christians living under communist-rule in China.”
There is no religious freedom in China.
In China, citizens are only allowed to worship in religious institutions approved by the bodies established by China’s Religious Affairs Bureau to exercise state supervision over them. For Protestant Christians, this means worshiping in churches affiliated with the TSPM/CCC.
Persecution stil exist in China, even today!
“Underground” or “house church” Christians worship secretly in homes at the risk of being arrested, fined, or imprisoned by Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials.
Oh no, someone gave away the secret…meeting in houses and rented offices.
“While it is certainly the WEA’s prerogative to only meet with national, state-sanctioned and Three-Self church leaders, their failure to mention 80 million faithful Christians who are clearly the majority of Chinese Christian population and meet in house churches and rented offices, has compromised the cause of the suffering church in China,” it added.